Ezio.
When had Ezio gotten there?
I want to ask more questions, but Pandora climbs onto thehospital bed and squeezes up against me. She buries her head against my shoulder. It’s the side with the bad eye, so I can barely see her unless I twist my head.
“I’m so, so sorry, Blaze,” Pandora whispers. “If I’d… If I’d been lessme, you wouldn’t have lost your eye.”
I notice Giulio’s expression darken.
“I’m pretty sure if you’d been lessyou, Pandora, I wouldn’t have wanted to be with you at all.” I sigh. “I’ll deal. I mean, I’ve only lost like, what, 50 degrees of peripheral vision? One-eyed men commandeered ships all the time. I can still be a badass.”
I don’t know that I’m actually this chill, but I’m not going to break down with Giulio Pavone in the room.
Especially not with Damien Rossi in the room either. He steps in a few seconds later, and like when I’d met him at Thanksgiving, I have no clue what his expression means.
“Giulio,” Damien says. “We have things to discuss. Let’s go outside.”
Giulio shakes his head. “Nope. I gotta know. Now that all four of the idiots are in one spot?—”
“Hey!” Pandora protests. “I’m the only idiot in the room, okay?”
I stroke her back gently. Her presence is helping me stay cool right now.
Panic attacks, later. In private.
Giulio ignores her. “What’s the plan? You know I love a good, explosive show of power—I mean, I would love one, if I was in any way violently inclined—but this is a fucking mess, and I say this as somebody who normally doesn’t care about clean-up.”
“Because that’s my job,” Damien mutters. “He’s right, though. This won’t go away as easily as simple murder.”
Asch looks down at the floor.
We’d never thought things would escalate this much.
River steps deeper into the room, closing the door behind him.
“We have all the phone data from around fifty influential kappa alpha alumni,” I say steadily. “Including JohnAllers. That’s passwords, 2FA, email logs. Combined with what we already know about them and their habits, we can convince them to keep their mouths shut.” I wish it was easier to think, but my thoughts slip through my head too fast for me to grab.
“And we can blame Ezio Romano,” Asch adds. “He planted the bombs. He… He hated everybody. He hated the Pavones, and the Bouchards, and all the institutions. He said as much to me.”
For a split second, Giulio’s expression morphs into one of absolute fury. He smooths it over with a smile that isn’t any less sinister. “Romano,” he spits. “Yeah. I thought they were all gone. Where is that little shit? Just so we can beat the real version of tonight’s events into him.”
“He’s dead,” Asch says. “Don’t worry. He won’t be saying anything. They’re all gone, for real this time.”
“George Bouchard is dead, too,” Pandora says. She clenches her fingers around my hospital gown. “So he’s not going to fight us.”
He won’t.
I wish I felt more relief about that.
I wish I could be glad that he’s dead. I thought I was prepared to kill him.
But I’m suddenly reminded of how he’d nodded his approval when I’d successfully outplayed a rival at school, and that’s so fucking petty, but he’d said “Good,” and I’d been over the moon about it.
I never even got the chance to question him about my half-siblings.
Would he have sacrificed himself for them, too?
“Huh. That leaves a huge fucking vacuum in NewVa. Damien—” Giulio starts.
